


to befriend a dragon

by deliveryservice



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmates, dragon tsukishima kei, other characters make cameos too!!! and some r mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:41:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26611606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deliveryservice/pseuds/deliveryservice
Summary: “Back away from the prince!” he says this to Kei, and waves his blade in a way that’s meant to be threatening. Kei, who has had experience duelling his fair share of humans and came out victorious, only blinks, tilting his massive, dragon-sized head. (Dragon-sized, because again, he is a dragon. Big scary stuff of legends.)“I’m literally not even trying to lay a hand on his hair,” Kei answers, because he’s tired. If anyone’s being held captive, it's him, and he’s not even sure how that works. Reverse-capture? “Please take him back. I’m begging you.”A take on 'the dragon captures the prince', except in this instance, Prince Shouyou follows his phoenix into a dragon's lair and refuses to leave until the dragon agrees to be his friend. Everyone else in the kingdom operates under the assumption Tsukishima had captured their prince, which is more annoying than anything becausehe’s trying to get rid of the prince who just won’t leave, damn it.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Tsukishima Kei
Comments: 9
Kudos: 196
Collections: TsukiHina week 2020!





	to befriend a dragon

**Author's Note:**

> for day three of tsukihina week, with the prompt soulmates! honestly kinda works for day four's mythology/fantasy prompt too ngl

For some reason Kei can’t discern, there is a boy standing at the entrance of his cave.

It’s been _years_ since the last time Kei has had a human visiting him: Even then, the last time had been less of a visit and more of a failed intrusion, because the humans then had taken one, long look at Kei’s sleeping dragon form and had opted to run for the hills instead of carrying through with their (reasonably reckless, extremely stupid) plan.

After that incident, Kei had chosen to relocate, because while he isn’t afraid of humans—he has enough faith in his own experience and skills to know he can take on a good crowd of them—they’re annoying nuisances, and Kei’s grown bored and tired of the ‘big bad dragon’ act that stopped being fun after he’d sent all the poor humans running away with only a flash of his fangs. He’s _sure_ he’d relocated to a cave remote enough no traveling wanderer would’ve been able to pass by, and he’s even more sure that he’d asked his mage acquaintance (not _friend_ , Kuroo Tetsurou) to place enchantments that should’ve acted as an illusion to weave those without magic away from his abode.

So this raises the question: How did a short pipsqueak of a human manage to stumble into his home, looking around in awe like Kei wasn’t _right there_ in his very large, very intimidating and scaly and spooky dragon form?

“Can I help you?” Kei asks, because dragons can talk—take _that_ , stupid misinformed book about magical creatures he’d read and promptly torn to shreds—and his talking voice, at least when Kei is a dragon (which he is, most of the time, because there’s barely ever a reason for him to go into his human form), is booming. And, might he add, supposed to be terrifying. It doesn’t make sense when instead of paling or sweating, or just straight-up running away, the boy at the entrance merely gapes in unrestrained wonder.

Just what _is_ he?

“Dragons can talk?!” he exclaims, and scampers from the entrance, not to run away (unfortunately) but instead to _get closer to Kei_. All of the sudden, Kei has a human leaning far too close to his snout for comfort, and there’s not enough room in the cave for Kei to back away. Which, he decides, would’ve been a stupid move anyway because _he is a dragon_ and he should have the ability to _snap the human in half_ with a swipe of his claw. “I thought the Great Compendium of Magical Creatures said dragons couldn’t talk! At least, that’s what my tutor said. I’ve never read the actual book myself,” he adds sheepishly, and Kei’s still so confused because what the fuck, how is he staying calmer than Kei himself is managing to.

“That book is bullshit,” Kei bites out; makes sure he’s putting on his most intimidating voice, the one that sends people running. Instead of it working, the boy only laughs, like Kei had just said something funny and not at all threatening.

“Right?! That’s what I told him, too! I tried telling him we obviously can’t trust the work of someone who didn’t even manage to get an interview with a fae, but he wouldn’t listen to me!”

Why is he talking to Kei like they’re friends? Rather, why does he even think he can act this friendly towards an unknown _dragon_ without there being any possible repercussions?

“I’m going to eat you,” Kei says, trying to see if it’ll garner him a reaction. He’s not actually going to eat him, unfortunately. Kei’s never eaten a human before, but from what he’s heard, they probably taste disgusting. He’d rather have his taste buds stay intact.

He must be having a cold, or there has to be something stuck on his face, because the boy dissolves into even more laughter, tears beginning to prickle at the corners of his eyes. “You’re funny!”

“I’m serious.”

“No, you’re not. If you’d really meant to lay harm on me, my phoenix wouldn’t have led me to you. Isn’t that right, Flame Boy?”

Flame _what_.

Kei finds himself staring eye-to-eye with an actual goddamn phoenix, squawking at him like he hadn’t just led the most troublesome human Kei has ever had the bad luck to encounter straight to his home. _I hate you,_ Kei tries to convey that in his gaze, telepathically, to the phoenix, but Flame Boy (and he can’t believe someone literally named their phoenix _Flame Boy_ ) only tilts its head in response, acting like he very well hadn’t near-singularly disrupted Kei’s peaceful life.

He hasn’t done anything to deserve this. He’s never even hoarded _gold_ , for God’s sake.

“You named your phoenix Flame Boy,” Kei says. It’s not a question.

“Yeah! Fits him really well, doesn’t it? Because he bursts into flames every so often, and it’s always so cool, like _PSHAW_!”

Kei has actually never seen a phoenix’s rebirth, but he imagines they’d deserve more finesse in explanation than only dropping the information with vague hand motions and an even vaguer, childish sound effect.

“Get out of my cave.”

“No way, this is the most fun I’ve had in _ages_. You wouldn’t believe the things they have me doing back at the castle instead of just letting me have fun. It’s always responsibility this, responsibility that. It’s _boooring_.” The orange-haired boy pouts, his hand lightly combing through his phoenix’s proud, ramrod-straight back (or at least, as straight as a phoenix’s back can get anyway). “And besides, you don’t seem that bad! Pretty grumpy, yeah, but it’s nothing I can’t handle—and oh, right. I haven’t even introduced myself, have I? I’m Hinata Shouyou, who are you?”

Warning bells ring at the back of Kei’s head at the mention of a castle, and he’s immediately reminded that Hinata had mentioned _tutors_ earlier. With his rotten luck, he’d managed to land himself a bored noble who’d found his abode and refused to even leave; and considering how Hinata has been acting thus far, Kei doubts his usual intimidation tactics would work, which is just _swell_. Not.

“Not giving you my name,” Kei answers, because Hinata is _not_ going to stick around if he has anything to do with it.

“We’ll see about that.” Hinata smirks, like Kei had just issued a challenge.

Kei so, very badly wants to kick him out.

* * *

Kei still wants to kick him out.

Even after the first few hours, Hinata had refused to leave, instead opting to look around in Kei’s cave like his host hadn’t very rudely tried to usher him out. For a noble, he has shit manners, and it leaves Kei wondering if Hinata’s like this with everyone or if he’s just so bored with his life back home that he’s taken to disturbing a dragon, of all things, just to feel alive.

“You still haven’t told me your name,” Hinata says, out of nowhere. It’s the second day he’s been here, and he’d taken Kei’s refusal to let him sleep underneath the cocoon of Kei’s wings as an invitation to instead sleep on the floor, with a sleeping mat rolled out. This was a planned expedition, apparently; more than just a mat, Hinata had even brought blankets and food, because he didn’t know how to hunt for shit and Kei thinks if he doesn’t feed Hinata, maybe Hinata will leave on his own after getting the hint.

“I’m not telling you my name.”

“Come on, I’ve been keeping you company for a day! Don’t you think that’s enough to form a friendship?”

“No.”

“At least give me hints!” Hinata whines, petulantly swinging his legs back and forth from where he’d created a makeshift bench using a stack of tall rocks.

“...No.”

“You know what? You think you’re this big, mean scary dragon, don’t you?” Hinata suddenly says. His sudden outburst gives Kei hope that he’s about to have a meltdown and, following that, promptly leave Kei alone. “Well here’s the truth: You aren’t! There’s a reason why I wasn’t intimidated by you, you know. Flame Boy obviously likes you, so you’re not as bad as you make yourself seem! I bet,” he pauses, suddenly gaining a wicked grin, “that you’re secretly even a _softie_.”

Kei rolls his eyes. He has refused to shift to his human form, even from Hinata’s persistence; this is annoying, because usually, Kei would’ve shifted back occasionally just to take a bath (it’s easier that way), but now his bathing schedule has been ruined with a Hinata Shouyou-shaped dent. “I don’t know where you’re getting these assumptions from, but they’re baseless and stupid.”

“They’re not baseless! Flame Boy likes you, he’s a good judge of character!”

“How did you even get a phoenix, anyway?” Kei asks instead, completely ignoring Hinata’s indignant splutters and mutterings. “Even the wealthiest of noble brats have trouble finding domesticated phoenixes.”

“He’s not domesticated,” Hinata says, surprising Kei. “And I didn’t buy him. He chose me.”

That’s the first time Kei has ever heard Hinata sound so serious, and apparently, he only gets serious when it’s about a phoenix named Flame Boy.

“Really?” Kei drawls. “You’re not making this up just to impress me into giving you my name?”

“I could’ve done that?” Hinata asks, because of course the idea had come to his head just now. Kei might only have known Hinata for a number of two (2) days, but in that time, he’s heard the boy chatter his ear off about so many things that Kei thinks he’s on his way to becoming an expert on Hinata Shouyou. He does not want that.

“No.”

“Aw, but I really want to know your name.”

And then, because Kei has an idea: “I’ll tell you my name if you promise to leave the cave as soon as you learn it.” Sometimes, a man (or in this case, a dragon) needs to resort to desperate measures. There’s nothing wrong with that.

At first, Hinata looks like he’s going to deny his offer: But then (and Kei can’t decide if this is worse or better, but it’s probably worse), his eyes take on a Glint, and his lips slant into a smirk. Kei has a very, very bad feeling about this, and immediately wishes he didn’t have the pride that’s stopping him from taking his words back.

“Deal,” Hinata says.

Kei doesn’t know what he’s up to, but he hopes that, whatever it is, it doesn’t involve Kei. (That probably sounds like wishful thinking, doesn’t it?)

“So, what’s your name?”

And because Kei is stupid: “Tsukishima Kei.”

“Really? That’s it?” Hinata sounds both confused and surprised, and Kei doesn’t know what he’d been expecting—it’s not like Kei can just say his true name without having Hinata’s being be blown off from existence. “I was expecting something cooler,” he actually sounds _disappointed_ , knowing that Kei’s name isn’t something more fantastical.

“I can’t tell you my true name. You’d literally blow up.”

“Oh. So that’s true? I thought that was just a rumor because scholars barely ever managed to find dragons’ real names,” Hinata says, contemplating.

“Well, you know it’s true. Now get out of my cave.”

* * *

The reason behind Hinata’s lack of a fight when Kei had shooed him out the other day makes itself clear when, barely a whole 24 hours after Kei had first kicked him out, Hinata is _back_ , this time carrying even more luggage on his back. Flame Boy is perched on his shoulder, squawking without a care that he’s disturbing Kei’s eardrums as if he hadn’t been the start of this entire mess. (In that moment, Kei decides phoenixes are now his least favorite magical creatures.)

“Why are you here again. I told you to leave.”

“You didn’t say I couldn’t come back!” Hinata beams, and yeah, Kei _definitely_ should’ve thought harder on why he hadn’t seemed peeved at all about leaving Kei alone. What’s more annoying is that Kei thinks he doesn’t _actually_ mind, if he really thinks about it, because a part of him has gotten used to Hinata’s company: From the orange hair of his that’d started as an eyesore but is starting to remind him of the sky at dusk, down to his bright, beaming smiles, that leaves Kei think that if Hinata’s hair is dusk, then the sun is hidden within his smile. Except that’s a very, very dangerous and cheesy train of thought, so maybe Kei doesn’t _actually_ think about it rather than having the thought pass through his mind once and promptly discarding it because he doesn’t _need_ that, what he needs is to be left alone and enjoy his days of solitude. He does not raid villagers, and he does not hoard gold; he deserves _some_ semblance of peace, does he not?

“I’m definitely leaving out that loophole next time. Now go away.”

“But I just got here!” Hinata sniffs, and literally throws down his bag on the floor. It clatters, ringing around the cave, and just what the _fuck_ had Hinata even packed for. “Besides, I don’t think I can go home yet.”

At this, Kei’s ears perk with interest. Because he can do that. Since, you know, dragonoid ears. “Trouble in paradise?” he tries; he knows most nobles Hinata’s age tend to be… married? He’s pretty sure? At least, that seems to have been the case the last time Kei had surrounded himself with humans, though that feels so long ago that he wouldn’t be surprised if things have changed.

“What paradise?” Hinata asks, his nose wrinkled the way it always gets when he’s in obvious thought. Or confused about something, which happens a lot.

“...Marriage, Hinata. I’m asking if there’s a problem in your marriage.”

“But I’m not married?” Hinata is still confused, and Kei is also confused. “Yikes, no! They kept trying to set me up with all these princes and princesses, but I don’t want to settle down with any of them.”

“Was everyone so revolting?” That’s a surprising thought: Considering Hinata’s sunny, cheerful disposition, Kei would’ve thought he would’ve been happy to be married off to some other noble to make more noble babies and secure more noble land… or however it is noble marriages work. Kei’s just assuming.

“It’s not that,” Hinata denies, “I just don’t think any of them are _right_ for me, you know?”

Great, because _obviously_ Hinata just had to be a hopeless romantic. Kei has nothing against them—not really, anyway, he just doesn’t care enough about what people prefer in love, as it’s been something he’s been apathetic about for quite some time now—but somehow, this tidbit of knowledge just fits with everything else he has learnt and observed about Hinata.

“What’s the criteria, then?” Kei asks, mostly because he’s curious, mostly because he’s bored and maybe Hinata is the most exciting thing that’s happened to him in nearly a decade. Kei doesn’t know. He doesn’t even _count_ years anymore, that’s how stagnant his life has gotten ever since he’d relocated.

“I don’t know.” Hinata shrugs, like he hasn’t a care in the world. For all Kei knows, maybe he doesn’t. “I just think I’ll know when I meet them… or maybe there’ll be this moment when _BAM!_ it hits me and then I’ll just, you know, have a feeling they’re the right person.”

This is the sappiest thing Kei has ever heard. Kei fakes a gag, because he’s petty and annoying, and allows Hinata to yell at him for being a jerk.

“You’re a real piece of work, you know that?” Hinata frowns, and Kei’s not sure if he’s _really_ hurt that Kei’d made fun of his views on romance. When Hinata doesn’t even pout, or stomp his feet, Kei deduces that yes, he may actually be angry.

Somehow, the thought of this bothers Kei more than he’d like.

* * *

Kei lasts another two days before he realizes he really, really needs a bath. It’s not that he’s started to stink, but it’s more of a personal hygiene thing where Kei literally can’t stand going through several days without bathing before he just starts feeling disgusting. And disgusted with himself, because even though some magical creatures couldn’t care less about their cleanliness, Kei isn’t like them: He cares, very much, about how he smells like, and he cares that he isn’t covered in grime and dust.

The only problem: Hinata is still there, and while Kei can technically still clean up in his dragon form, he’s always preferred going to the river nearby in his human form. It’s faster, and all in all, it’s just much more convenient.

“Can you leave today?” Kei asks that morning, after he’s eaten breakfast for himself and Hinata’s scrounged up some of his carefully rationed bread, knowing full well Kei wasn’t going to cook something for him. Hinata doesn’t even know if Kei can cook, because Kei’s meals consists of animals he hunts down and eats raw. It always garners him a look of disgust, but what else is Kei supposed to eat? The trees? Hinata? Gross.

“You didn’t shoo me away at all yesterday, I knew it was too good to last,” Hinata groans dramatically, and takes a large bite of his bread. “I can, but I won’t. I don’t wanna leave yet.”

“People are going to search for you eventually,” Kei points out. While he doesn’t know that for sure—Kei is many things, but he isn’t a seer—Hinata is a noble, and nobles don’t tend to disappear without notice. Kei can handle himself in a fight, but he’d rather not get into any over Hinata when he’d been the one barging into Kei’s life in the first place.

“Meh, whatever. It’ll take them at least another week before they find me.” Hinata waves him off.

“And you know this because…?”

“None of them have phoenixes, and the closest mage lives a two-days’ ride away. You basically told me this whole place’s warded, so there’s no way they’ll be able to find me that fast on their own, right?”

Hinata can, surprisingly, be smart when needed; it’s a discovery that leaves Kei blinking, but he’s quick to regain his composure, glaring at Hinata with a look that would usually be more effective. He swears it’s effective: It’s the same look that sends off hunters and other meddling humans with a single use, but none of his glares appear to work on Hinata. It’s actually a little interesting.

“If any of them try to kill me, I will tear your limbs apart right in front of their faces.”

“I know you wouldn’t actually do that,” Hinata snickers, and Kei wonders what would’ve happened had he just, physically, flew Hinata away from his cave on that fateful first encounter. “You’re a softie, just like I said.”

Kei monotones: “You have no proof of that, you’re just running off assumptions.”

“But you still never said no.”

“Then this is me saying no: No.”

Hinata laughs, the way he always does whenever Kei shoots him down. At some point, the laughter would get concerning, but for now, it’s just annoying. “You’re a funny dragon, Tsukishima.”

“Thanks,” Kei says, obviously bemused. “Now would you _please_ go away.”

“You even said please this time?! Kei Tsukishima said the magic word!” Hinata exclaims, the last bit of his sentence directed towards his phoenix, who does not miraculously grow a tongue to answer Hinata. It leaves Kei feeling slightly vindicated. “No, but seriously, what’s the big deal about today?”

Kei would’ve grit his teeth, had he been in his human form. “I need to take a bath.”

“...So take one? What’s me being there got to do with it?”

“I need to shift into a human.”

“Okay, so? I’m not going to think you’re not a dragon anymore just because you can shift into humans—which, by the way, sounds super cool. Can you choose your appearance?”

Hinata doesn’t get it, which surprises absolutely nobody.

“I don’t want you to see my human form,” Kei says.

“What’s wrong with it? Oh man, is it deformed?!” Hinata begins sounding a little _too_ excited for someone Kei doesn’t want seeing his human form, and Kei wishes he cared a little less so that he could swish his tail and just flick Hinata to the nearest wall. He doesn’t do it, because Kei is a civilized dragon, but the battle is a winding one.

“It’s perfectly fine.”

“Then why don’t you want me to see it?”

“Human forms are personal,” Kei explains, and he shouldn’t have to be the one explaining this if humans could just get their information about dragons right, but _no_ , of course they just had to mess it up. “Dragons don’t show their human forms to anyone but their—um.” At this, Kei stops, and he’s _definitely_ glad he’s a dragon right now. If he were in his human form, there’s no doubt he would have blushed.

“Their _what_? I’m not a mind-reader, you know!”

“Their soulmates,” Kei manages to say, spitting out the word like it’d done something to personally offend him. It hadn’t, but soulmates are always a tricky topic: Humans don’t seem to believe in them, but magical creatures and those sharing a special connection with the Earth and the magical arts in general _do_. There’s no such thing as soulmarks, but just as Kei had made fun of Hinata for his statement of just ‘knowing’, that’s how soulmates are supposed to work—and dragons take soulmates very seriously, because once you’ve met and bonded with them, it’s for life. They are the only ones who are supposed to see your human form; supposed to see you when you are at your most vulnerable.

“No way, soulmates exist?” Hinata gasps, because of _course_ that’s what he would’ve gotten from that admission. That hopeless sap.

“Always have.”

“How come I didn’t know about this? How come nobody told me?”

Kei’s tail swings left and right as he contemplates on how he should say this, but in the end, he just breaks it as it is: “Some humans know about it, I suppose. But I guess most just don’t care. Us dragons and you humans… we value things differently.” It may be the most he’s spoken to Hinata at once, because Hinata mutters an almost reverent ‘holy shit, he can _talk_ talk’ that leaves Kei wishing he’d stayed silent and ignored him.

“But even if humans don’t really know about it, does that mean I have a soulmate, too?” And Hinata sounds so vulnerable, so _timid_ and hopeful that Kei can’t even bring himself to be an asshole and say no, he doesn’t; not because Hinata doesn’t have one, but because Kei likes jabbing at people with his words. Still, Kei is not completely without a conscience.

“You probably do,” he admits, because everyone’s supposed to have a soulmate. Or soulmates. It’s just a matter of finding them: Kei’s never gone out of his way to search for his, but he knows of dragons that have searched far and wide to find theirs.

(Some of them never find their other halves at all, and just hearing about that _stings_. This is why Kei doesn’t want to bother. He can’t get disappointed if he’d never started to try.)

“How do I find them?” Hinata asks, with a quiet, serious tone that doesn’t sound like it quite belongs in his voice.

“You just will. Or you won’t,” Kei adds the latter half because while he’s trying to be nice, that doesn’t mean he has to be _completely_ friendly; that’s just not him. “Some go their entire lives without finding theirs. It happens.”

“But I don’t want to go my entire life without meeting my soulmate!”

“Tough luck, you don’t get to decide that.”

Hinata’s eyes burn with determination, and Kei suddenly finds it very difficult to look away. “I’ll find my soulmate before you do, Tsukishima! And then I’m going to brag about it and laugh at your face because I _won_ ,” he says, sounding entirely self-satisfied at the challenge only one of them had agreed upon.

“That’s… not how it works,” Kei says. He is _tired_. “Besides, I don’t really care about finding my soulmate.”

“You what?” Hinata gasps. He acts like Kei had just cursed his entire family. “No, I don’t believe that. You’re probably just grumpy because you’re _ancient_ and you haven’t found yours.”

“No, I really, genuinely, do _not_ care.” And it’s not because Kei doesn’t want love, because he does—or at least, a part of him does. But even if it’s love, even if soulmates are a good thing, Kei doesn’t think it’s something worth fixating over his entire life. He’s a dragon. He probably has a long life ahead of him. If he’d spent every waking moment of it fretting over finding his mate, Kei doubts he’ll ever get to really live.

Maybe that isn’t saying much, because Kei’s daily life consists of him sleeping his days away—sometimes for literal weeks on end—in his cave, but at least he does that _without_ stress. Or rather: He didn’t do it without stress, before Hinata Shouyou forced himself into Kei’s life.

“If you say so, Tsukishima,” Hinata sings. He doesn’t believe Kei at all.

I _did_ say so, Kei nearly says. “Believe whatever you want,” he says instead, because arguing with Hinata once he has his mind set on something is a fool’s errand. “I still need you to leave, because I have to go bathe.”

“Why can’t I just turn around?” Hinata whines, obviously reluctant to go home. Kei doesn’t know what’s so bad about Hinata’s home; Hinata doesn’t share too much about his duties back home, or even his residence, but Kei gets the feeling it’s either very, very bad, or very, very boring. “I won’t even get Flame Boy to spy on you.”

“You can get your phoenix to spy on me?”

“I mean—of course not! Me? Communicate with Flame Boy? Nah, not possible at all! That’s right, isn’t it, Flamey?”

Kei shakes his head incredulously. Being able to communicate with phoenixes is a rare skill amongst mages, and nearly unheard of with regular humans; Hinata Shouyou is a mystery, Kei decides. An annoying one that doesn’t seem to understand the value of privacy or personal space, but a mystery, nonetheless.

“Just go home, Hinata.”

“Not _yetttt_ ,” Hinata says, and if pouts were audible, anyone could’ve heard the pout clearly in his voice. “Oh, I know! I’ll blindfold myself!”

Before Kei can inch another word out, say something like how instead of being extra Hinata could just go home and never come back, Hinata’s gotten plain cloth out of his bag and is working on tying it around his head, most notably covering his eyes.

“Okay, done!” Hinata flashes him a thumbs up. He ends up directing it to a wall several paces right from Kei. “I promise I can’t see a thing. Now go take a shower. Or soak. Whatever dragons do.”

* * *

Eventually, somebody comes for Hinata.

Kei doesn’t know how many days has passed since Hinata’s reemergence; he doesn’t keep track because he’s scared that if he does, he’ll just get increasingly annoyed knowing Hinata has been around for, say, _thirty_ days. But it can’t have been that long, because Hinata still has some leftover food and clothes, and Kei would guess his seven-day estimation on when somebody would come to try and ‘rescue’ him had been correct.

“Prince Shouyou?” somebody calls, voice nearing the entrance of the cave. “Prince Shouyou, I’ve come to rescue you!”

Hinata must have recognized the voice, because he frowns from where he’d been leaning against a boulder. “Why’s the bastard being so formal?” he wonders, and shouts, at the top of his lungs: “OI! BAKAGEYAMA! I DON’T NEED TO BE SAVED, SO GO HOME!”

If Bakageyama (what kind of name was that? Humans were weird as fuck) hadn’t known where they were before, there’s no way he doesn’t know now. There’s the clamor of footsteps and a loud, annoyed grunt when a raven-haired boy emerges from the entrance, dressed in knightly attire, wielding a sword even bigger than his torso.

“Back away from the prince!” he says this to Kei, and waves his blade in a way that’s meant to be threatening. Kei, who has had experience duelling his fair share of humans and came out victorious, only blinks, tilting his massive, dragon-sized head. (Dragon-sized, because again, he is a _dragon_. Big scary stuff of legends.)

“I’m literally not even trying to lay a hand on his hair,” Kei answers, because he’s _tired_. If anyone’s being held captive, it's him, and he’s not even sure how that works. Reverse-capture? “Please take him back. I’m _begging_ you.”

Hinata yells an indignant ‘hey!’, as if personally offended. Good. Kei hopes he is, and doesn’t come back next time.

“Come on, I wasn’t that bad of company!”

“I asked you to leave at least a hundred times. I don’t know how it is with humans nowadays, but usually, when your host asks you to leave, you do it.”

“I know you didn’t hate my company _that_ much. If you really hated it, you could’ve kicked me out yourself,” Hinata sulks. Kei doesn’t say anything to that, mostly because he _can’t_ ; unfortunately, Hinata has a point. Though Kei’d constantly asked Hinata to leave, if he really had wanted to be left alone, Kei had the strength to manhandle Hinata and drop him off at the nearest sign of civilization.

And he hadn’t.

 _Why_ exactly had he not done that, Kei can’t figure out himself, and this bothers him: He’d usually have an answer for all of his actions, because Kei is just the type of dragon who thinks things through before he actually does any of his plans—but Hinata had been a wrench in those plans, in his routine; by all means, Kei should’ve thrown him out the moment he’d arrived, but it’s like there was always something stopping him from actually doing so, like corporeal strings tugging him and his thoughts away from actually doing anything to push Hinata away for good.

And then, once the pieces fall together, the answer—glaringly obvious to the point it _taunts_ him—presents itself in Kei’s mind. The realization is accompanied with the feeling of _something_ in his chest lightening, and Kei hadn’t known that breathing hadn’t been so easy until now, when the world feels clearer because he’s uncovered a mystery he’d stopped even _thinking_ of, but still, it feels good—it feels freeing—to know the answer to one of the oldest questions he has ever wondered, for himself.

Hinata Shouyou is his soulmate. _His soulmate_. And how could Kei have not caught on sooner, when he _knows_ full well of the rumors surrounding familiars leading one to their soulmate?

“I’m fucked,” he says, with the voice of a man who has just discovered the secrets of the universe and decided he’d rather go back to staying ignorant. That’s what Kei hopes he could do, but even he knows rejecting your soulmate is a terrible idea; not many have done so, but the ones that have… Kei would’ve shivered, if he could. The repercussions are never pretty, and it’s deemed as rejecting the Earth herself.

“What’s wrong, Tsukishima?” Hinata asks.

“I’m literally still right here,” Bakageyama says. Both Hinata and Kei ignore him.

“Hinata,” Kei says, his voice more serious than it usually is, “do you feel anything different?”

Shit. Kei doesn’t know what he’s supposed to be doing in this situation, mostly because he doesn’t make it a habit to read about what happens after you find your soulmate—because _he’d never expected to find his at all_.

“What do you mean, different? Did you put something in my breakfast?”

“No, Hinata, just—pay attention.”

“To _what_?”

 _To me_. “To yourself,” Kei hisses.

Hinata is very obviously confused, lips parting open to sound a loud ‘HUH?’ but just as realization had dawned on Kei, it sinks on Hinata, too; several moments later, his face goes beet red and he looks at Kei with a glint of _something_ in his eye, looking at Kei like he’d hung the stars in the sky. “It’s you.”

“Am I interrupting something?” The knight asks, obviously annoyed for having gone ignored for far too long; and Kei doesn’t know what he’d expected, but whatever it was, having to witness the awakening of a soulbond probably hadn’t been what he’d signed up for. Some part of Kei even feels sorry for him.

“Yeah, you are.” Surprisingly, it’s Hinata who replies, glaring at the knight with enough ferocity it would’ve made a hatchling dragon cower. “Go away, Bakageyama.”

“You need to go home, stupid,” Bakageyama says, dropping the ‘Prince Shouyou’ formal act. “You have a kingdom to look after.”

Hinata waves him off. “Leave my duties to Natsu, she’s always wanted to be the reigning princess.”

“Hinata, Natsu is _eight_.”

“And? Kids are great at making simple decisions!”

“Hinata. _Prince Stupid._ ”

“Kageyama, shoo.”

Kageyama does not shoo, because apparently, he also does not know how to read the room. If that’s how the knight and the prince acts, Kei worries for the state of the kingdom, whatever it is. “I’ve been looking for you for _days_. Your parents are worried. Natsu is worried.”

Natsu is probably the magic word, because where before Hinata had petulantly refused to go home, it’s like a switch was flipped: Hinata hesitates, and looks at Kei for one long moment, considering.

“Just go home,” Kei grumbles. “It’s not like I can stop you from coming back.”

The grin Hinata rewards him with is blinding. Kageyama, in the background, is still very, very obviously confused, because _why would anyone want to willingly come back to a dragon’s lair_. Nobody sane would have attempted it; nobody usually would’ve attempted it, period, but not everyone has found themselves meeting their soulmate who is, apparently, a dragon.

“I’m coming back, Tsukishima,” Hinata swears. “I promise.”

“...I know. I’ll hold you to it.”

* * *

Though he will never admit this to anyone else, Kei grows antsy in the days that follow when Hinata doesn’t return, not yet. He even begins counting the days, even if all it does is frazzle his nerves and fuel thoughts of anxiety that maybe Hinata hadn’t wanted his soulmate to be a dragon, and he’s never coming back because he has rejected Kei.

(When did he get so dramatic about this? He’d never cared about soulmates before. Genuinely couldn’t care less, even, if he’d never found his at all.)

He’s even tempted to contact somebody who knows more about soulmates than he does—like Yamaguchi, who had found his ages ago and before that had studied the myth behind it extensively—but Kei doesn’t, because that’d mean having to explain his predicament, and there are little things more humiliating than admitting your soulmate is actually someone who’d practically, literally, forced his way into your home and then refused to leave. And kept coming back. Like a weed.

One day, Kei is pacing in thought, dragon form discarded for his human one, when Hinata comes back. Because of course Hinata would come back in the one time Kei isn’t a dragon; and he stands there confused, looking at Kei like he’s both an intruder and a puzzle.

“Hey, who are you?” Hinata asks, like he can’t feel their bonds twisting and tangling together through the air; Kei can feel his curling around Hinata’s, happy and eager for his return.

Then again, Hinata has no connection to magic other than the fact he’d somehow managed to gain a phoenix as his familiar, so Kei shouldn’t be too surprised he’s not able to feel their bonds as clearly as Kei does, whose entire being _is_ magic.

“Guess,” Kei flatly intones.

Hinata’s eyes widen. He sprints forward towards Kei, and promptly pinches Kei’s cheek. Kei winces, because Hinata is stronger than he looks, and as a human, he’s much more prone to things like pain by pinching than he is as a dragon. “Stop that.”

“Sorry.” Hinata doesn’t sound sorry at all, but he does release Kei’s cheek. He peers at Kei, then, leaning forward close enough that their noses touch and his lashes tickle Kei’s jaw. He’d thought Hinata wasn’t short when he’d been a dragon, because as a dragon, most humans are short—but he hadn’t expected Hinata to _still_ remain short even when Kei’s a human; still, the height difference isn’t bad, and some could even call it _cute_. Not Kei, but somebody out there would. “Tsukishima?”

Because Kei, sometimes, doesn’t think before he speaks: “You can call me Kei. We’re soulmates,” the last part goes mumbled, and while he hopes Hinata hadn’t heard, his hopes (and dreams, apparently) are futile, for Hinata’s cheeks split into the widest grin Kei has ever seen on his face. And that’s saying something.

“Then call me Shouyou, Kei!” Shoyou’s all too happy to say his name like that, and Kei thinks it’s very, very unfair of the universe to give him a soulmate he simultaneously can’t stand _and_ always wants to be around. It’s a difficult balance to handle, and Kei wonders if things would’ve gone better had he ever hoarded gold instead of living his life cleanly—he’s never caused trouble, and trouble is what he gets. “You’re really tall,” Shouyou says, closely observing him. “And really handsome, too.”

Kei hopes his cheeks aren’t pink. Again: His hopes and dreams are futile, because he _must’ve_ blushed, seeing as Shouyou’s grin turns from beaming and all sunshines-and-daisies to shit-eating. “How long are you staying this time?” Kei asks instead, because it’s easier to change the subject than it is to play along.

Still, Kei has never been known for his subtlety. The look Shouyou gives him is flat and unimpressed, and Kei holds his gaze, unblinking. “Maybe a couple days,” Shouyou finally answers. “I’d stay longer if I could, but it’s true that I need to go back and learn how to run my kingdom.” He smiles, apologetically, and the regret oozes off him in waves.

Kei can’t say he’s not disappointed, but this is what happens when your soulmate is a prince, who has _actual responsibilities_ (though he’d been avoiding them like the plague), while he’s a dragon. Things would’ve been easier if Kei was a commoner, or if Shouyou was anyone _but_ the prince. Or if he was another dragon. That would’ve been simple.

“It’s fine.” Kei hates how he sounds like it isn’t. “How about… how about marriages? Are you betrothed to anyone?”

It’s like he _likes_ eating his heart out.

“Nah.” Shouyou shakes his head. The relief that comes to Kei can drown him in waves. “I mean, I _was_ , but I broke it off.”

“You… what?”

“I told them I’d found my soulmate, _duh_.” Shouyou’s lips slant into a smirk. “And mom knows I’m unstoppable when I’ve got my mind set on something, so! They annulled the betrothal, so long as, you know, I can prove that I’ve actually found my soulmate.” He looks at Kei expectantly.

If this had been a week ago, Kei would’ve said no. He would’ve kicked not-Shouyou-but-Hinata out of his cave and moved on to a new location so he wouldn’t be bothered by persistent humans with sunset-orange hair and smiles like sunshine. But this _isn’t_ a week ago, and the circumstances have changed; and even though Kei already knows he’s going to have regrets, sometimes, there are things worth taking the plunge for. Like Shouyou. Shouyou is worth taking risks for, even if it could mean the end of Kei’s peaceful life as he knows it.

“You know you’re going to have to explain to them your soulmate’s a dragon.”

Shouyou’s whole face turns warily hopeful, and Kei realizes he could never, _ever_ regret this.

“I was actually hoping you’d help explain that.”

“Tough luck, you’re on your own.”

“ _Keiiii_!”

* * *

They travel back to the kingdom like this:

Kei transforms back into a dragon, ignoring Shouyou’s muted whisper of how it’s unfair Kei’s pretty both as a human and as a dragon (and if he’d smirked hearing that, well, it’s not like Shouyou had said a bad thing). Shouyou hops on his back, Flame Boy perched on his shoulder as always like he couldn’t just fly back on his own, and with a swish of his tail and a leap, they’re flying through the air; speeding through the winds, soaring through the skies.

“Can I sing ‘A Whole New World’?”

“Do that, and I’m dropping you off at the nearest town.”

Shouyou ignores him, and begins singing “I CAN SHOW YOU THE WORLD!” at the top of his lungs. Kei does not drop him off at the nearest town.

With Kei’s speed, they’re able to arrive at the kingdom within an hour. There are guards there, swords at the ready and archers positioned several stories above the guards, ready to kill a dragon. They don’t expect their prince to be riding said dragon, laughing and whooping like there’s no threat at all.

“Hey, that’s Sawamura-san!” Shouyou points at the leader of the guards, and waves ferociously. “IT’S SAFE, SAWAMURA-SAN! THE DRAGON’S MY SOULMATE!”

The guard warily eyes Kei. “Prince Shouyou, that’s a dragon.”

“I know! Isn’t that awesome?”

“...Prince Shouyou, you’re saying that your soulmate’s a dragon.”

“Yup!” Shouyou says, popping the ‘p’ with nothing more than a grin fueled by exhilaration and adrenaline. “I’m introducing him to mom and dad! Oh, and don’t worry, you’re invited to the wedding.”

“There will be no weddings.”

“Kei.”

“...Not yet.”

“Spoilsport.” Shouyou pouts, and jumps off of Kei with one smooth movement. It’s actually rather impressive. “Turn back into a human, you’re too big to fit into the throne room like this.”

Kei sighs, but does as Shouyou asks. It’s a good thing he has enough mastery of illusory magic to conjure a set of clothes after he transforms back, because he’s not prone to flashing in front of a bunch of strangers and Shouyou. Or flashing at all. “See? Harmless.” Because he’s petty, Kei makes it a point to open his mouth, showing off his small fangs. They’re harmless when he’s a human.

Though the guard still eyes him with suspicion, he holds up his hand, and does some sort of signal that has the others stand down. “We all thought you’d kidnapped His Highness.”

“It was more like he’s the one who held me captive,” Kei says, and snorts. “I kept bugging the dumbass to leave. He just never listened to me.”

“Kei, stop being a jerk, you’re my soulmate.”

“Just because we’re soulmates doesn’t mean I’m going to start treating you like you’re royalty, Shouyou.”

Shouyou gapes. “Did you just make a pun?!”

“...It wasn’t on purpose.”

“You totally just made a pun. Aw, I’m rubbing off on you.”

Sawamura looks between the both of them, confused. And just like Kageyama, Kei has to feel sorry for him, because it’s obvious he, also, does not get paid enough to deal with this.

They make it to the throne room relatively uneventfully, if you’d count staring and pointing from the others living in the palace to be uneventful; it’s like that because, despite all the staring, nobody had actually approached neither him nor Hinata, and Kei’s able to tune them out by ignoring the little details of the palace. This is his first time entering one that’s decked in black and orange accents, with little trinkets of silver and gold decorating the space along the way. It’s an eyesore, and they should fire whoever had designed this place.

Finally, their trek stops the moment they stand before a grand, two-story door decorated with orange jewels and obsidian pearls. “This is it,” Shouyou says. He’s fidgeting, and Kei has to place a hand on his shoulder to get him to stop. “Sorry. I’m not shaking, am I? I’m just nervous.”

“It’ll be fine,” Kei says. “And if it goes to shit, we can always just run away. I’ll fly us somewhere nice.”

“You’d do that?”

“Wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.”

Shouyou looks constipated, for a moment; and just as Kei’s ready to ask him if he’s alright, he’s leaning forward to brush his lips over Kei’s cheeks. It’s quick, only the briefest of pecks, but that’s already enough to leave Kei turning pink—the only consolation here is that Shouyou’s not much better off, his entire face as ripe red as a tomato.

“Right. Okay. It’s going to be fine,” Shouyou whispers, and takes Kei’s hand in his. Hesitantly, at first, like he’s scared of Kei pushing him away. Kei doesn’t, and that leaves Shouyou with enough confidence to lace their fingers together, giving Kei’s hand a squeeze that’s tight enough it’d probably have hurt anyone if they weren’t a dragon. Again: Kei needs to stop underestimating Shouyou’s strength, it seems. “Alright. You ready?”

 _I should be the one asking you that instead, dumbass,_ Kei thinks. “Yeah.”

Shouyou’s parents, as it turns out, are not very different from Shouyou himself. And by that, Kei means they _look so much_ like Shouyou, and they act enough like him that even if Kei had his eyes closed, he’d still be able to tell they were his parents.

“So _you’re_ our son’s soulmate?” Shouyou’s father—the king—asks, scrutinizing Kei with his stare. Kei is… not intimidated at all, because Shouyou’s father is: a) Shorter than him, and b) Generally has a very, very friendly face, the type that’d get himself asked for directions had he been in the middle of a busy street.

“Yes, Your Highness,” Kei answers, straightening his back. Again: Not because he’s intimidated, but because he has _manners_ , and he’s meeting his soulmate’s parents. He might not have been kidding about flying off him and Hinata, but he’d rather that be a last-resort decision, if ever needed. “I’m Tsukishima Kei, a dragon.”

“Won’t you tell us your dragon name, dear?” asks Shouyou’s mother, and Kei has to wonder just how misinformed nobles are these days about magic. Maybe if he sticks around long enough he’ll write a book just to disprove their false nuances.

“Mortals can’t hear our real names,” Kei says. “The power of our names would tear you apart from the inside-out.”

Shouyou nudges his side with his elbow. Kei doesn’t know what he’d done wrong: He was only being honest.

“I hadn’t known that,” she says, and smiles apologetically. Kei shrugs, mumbles an ‘it’s fine.’ “How did the both of you meet? Shouyou refused to tell us the details.”

At this, Kei smirks. “It’s a funny story, you see, and it begins with your son following his phoenix into a dragon’s lair.”

**Author's Note:**

> hope you liked it! i'm on [twt](https://twitter.com/jinorrah) if you wanna see future fic sniplets :D also, let me know if you'd like a director's cut, because i'm SO CLOSE to making this an actual verse with spin-offs and everything!!!


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